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GardenBox Subscription Box Review – July 2016

Lindsey Morse
ByLindsey MorseJul 15, 2016 | 4 comments

GardenBox-July-2016-Box

GardenBox
2 overall rating
1 Ratings | 0 Reviews

GardenBox is a subscription that sends pre-seeded micro greens kits, growing instructions, and recipes for the greens you receive.

GardenBox-July-2016-Screenshot

Each shipment contains two gardens with seasonally selected micro greens and herbs that are ready to harvest in about two weeks (or less).

GardenBox-July-2016-HerbTypes

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

GardenBox-July-2016-BoxOpen

The Subscription Box: GardenBox

The Cost: $35 per month

The Products: Two 5” x 20” gardens pre-planted with seasonal micro greens or micro herbs. (Note that each garden will yield 3-4 servings.)

Ships to: The continental US.

Check out all of our GardenBox reviews, the Eco Subscription Box Directory and Food Subscription Box Directory!

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GardenBox-July-2016-Letter

My box contained a letter from the GardenBox team. The letter provided recycling instructions for the growing trays, along with a free box offer if you save and return 12 trays.

GardenBox-July-2016-Flyers1

Each pre-planted tray came with a leaflet that provided information about the plants and growing instructions. This box included Chinese cabbage and beet micro greens. Both can be harvested on day 10.

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The reverse of each leaflet included a recipe!

GardenBox-July-2016-Tray1

I unpacked each growing tray and removed the protective layer of tissue paper.

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The micro greens seeds arrive pre-planted in dehydrated soil.

GardenBox-July-2016-Watering

As per the instructions, I watered each tray until the soil was lightly moist at the surface.

I placed the growing trays inside on my window ledge (the sunniest place in my house).

GardenBox-July-2016-Day3

On day 3, I saw the first signs of sprouting from the Chinese cabbage greens.

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On day 4, the beets started to sprout, too.

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By day 6, the cabbage micro greens were growing like wild!

GardenBox-July-2016-Day6Beets

The beets were also coming along. Check out those bright red stems!

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Here they are on day 8.

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Here’s the cabbage on day 10, yay for harvest day!

GardenBox-July-2016-Day10Beets

The beets were ready, too.

GardenBox-July-2016-BeetHarvest

I had a friend over for lunch on harvest day, and we decided to make two different salads (one for each green). I harvested half of each tray for the meal.

GardenBox-July-2016-CabbageHarvest

The yield from the cabbage garden was substantially higher than the yield from the beet garden.

GardenBox provides recipes for each type of micro green they send, but neither of this shipment’s recipes really jumped out at me. I find micro greens super inspiring for some reason, though, so it wasn’t difficult to come up with a couple ideas of my own!

GardenBox-July-2016-BeetRecipe

For the beet micro greens, my friend and I made a salad of naval orange slices, greens, quick-pickled red onion, toasted pine nuts, and an agave vinaigrette. I was really happy with how this salad came out! Also, I LOVED the beet micro greens! They added a subtle beet flavor to the salad that was really earthy and delicious, and they were great with the sweet oranges.

GardenBox-July-2016-CabbageSalad

We also made a salad with the cabbage micro greens. For that one, we combined greens, thinly sliced red apples, toasted walnuts, and cranberries with a tangy whole grain mustard vinaigrette. Both salads were really good, but I preferred the one with the beet greens. My friend, on the other hand, liked the cabbage green salad! Still, we did our best to share.

Verdict: I really love growing my own micro greens on the window sill, and it’s really handy that GardenBox sends trays that are pre-planted and ready to go. It’s fun to watch their day-to-day progress, and the harvested greens are beautiful, fresh, and healthy. I love coming up with new ways to eat them! The gardens I received in this box yielded enough micro greens for four good-sized salads. In order to think about the value of this subscription, I had to do some research. Micro greens can cost upwards of $5 an oz. (pricey!), and If I had to guess I’d say I got about 4-6 oz. combined from both gardens. Personally, I love the experience of growing, harvesting, and eating my own micro greens, so I think the price is worth paying.

All that said, I’m not sure I feel comfortable recommending GardenBox because of my experience last month. Neither of those gardens grew, and I’m not sure why. I reached out to GardenBox for support, but I never received a reply, which is obviously problematic. I honestly can’t say if last month’s seeds were flawed or if the failed harvest was due to something I did, but I think it’s important to call out GardenBox customer service for the lack of reply. For anyone interested in subscribing, I think it’s important to know that if you run into a problem, you may very well be on your own.

Have you tried growing micro greens before? What do you think about GardenBox?

Starting at $45.00
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Bring farm-to-table freshness into your home kitchen with GardenBox. Each month, you will receive two pre-planted artisanal greens trays. With just a little watering and some love, you will have fresh and nutritious micro greens and herbs ready to eat in less than two weeks. These delicious, tend... read more.
Lindsey Morse
Lindsey Morse

Lindsey is a professional baker, cold brew coffee addict, and rosé aficionado who loves writing about food and wine. When she’s not sharing her love of subscription boxes with the world, you’ll find her in the podcasting studio, perfecting her cake decorating techniques, or cursing her way through the New York Times daily crossword puzzle. 


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4 comments

darla

Wow, what a great review! I loved all of the pictures and your salads look delicious. How do you make a quick-pickled red onion?

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Lindsey Morse

Thanks so much, darla!

I make quick-pickled red onions by mixing a 1/2 cup of vinegar (I like using red or white wine vinegar) with a 1/2 cup of boiling water. I stir in a large pinch of salt and a large pinch of sugar and then add thin slices of red onion. The longer they sit, the softer and more “pickled” they become, but usually even 20 minutes or so is long enough to infuse them with a nice vinegary bite. 🙂

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Anna

I love your reviews of this box, Lindsey! If they grew well consistently I would totally give them a try, even though it might be a little more than just buying the greens. There’s actually a LOT of added nutritional value to growing your own plants whenever possible because of the live enzymes that come from eating plants immediately after harvest. When you buy vegetables from the store, who knows how long they’ve been dead. 🙁

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Lindsey Morse

Great point, Anna! 🙂

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